that does it for us this morning. "morning joe" starts right now. in times of tragedy, the bonds that sustain us are those of family, faith, community and country. these bonds are stronger than the forces of hatred and evil and these bonds grow even stronger in the hours of our greatest need. and so always but especially today let us hold our loved ones close, let us pray for healing and for peace and let us come together as one nation to wipe away the tears and strive for a much better tomorrow. >> good morning. it's friday, february 16. welcome to "morning joe." president trump yesterday addressing the nation after wednesday's school shooting in florida.

we'll show you more of what he said and the one word he didn't use that caught people's attention. last night, thousands came together to remember the victims. as we learn new details about how the massacre unfolded. also this morning, could the dream be coming to an end for dreamers? four immigration proposals failed to pass in the senate. the one based on the president's plan for immigration reform getting the least number of votes. and what could be a major development in the russia investigation. new reporting that former trump campaign adviser rick gates is finalizing a plea deal with special counsel robert mueller's office. but we begin this morning with the victims of wednesday's mass murder at parkland florida's douglas high school. last night the community gathered to remember the 17 students and faculty killed and we want to take a moment here to talk about all 17.

we'll start with 15-year-old peter wang, remembered as funny and selfless by his cousin. he was born in brooklyn, new york, he was wearing a gray rotc shirt when he was gunned down. >> the family of 14-year-old alaina petty described her as vibrant and determined and we're told that she was among the hundreds of volunteers who rushed to help those devastated by hurricane irvin. 49-year-old chris hixon, he was the school's athletic director and wrestling coach. we are told that whenever there was an altercation, a fight or any problem around campus, mr. hixon always found a way to get to the scene and deal with it. 14-year-old freshman jamie guttenberg is being remembered as someone who always looked out for the underdog.

always cared for the bullied. we're told that she loved to dance and wanted to be an occupational therapist. joaquin oliver was 17 years old. according to his facebook page david giada was among his favorite musical artists and listed rafael nadal as his favorite athlete and baseball was his favorite sport and the miami heat his favorite team. he also said that chuck e. cheese has the best pizza. >> also lost, 35-year-old scott beigel. he was gunned down shielding the students. the cousin of 18-year-old meadow pollack said everyone should know how great she was. beautiful, inside and out. she was the baby of the family who everybody wanted to protect. we're told she was a good student who planned to attend lynn university in boca raton, florida.

nicholas dworet was 17 years old, he was a senior. he had committed to be a swimmer for the university of indianapolis. he was remembered as an energetic and vibrant kid. 16-year-old carmen schentrup was called one of the smartest and most intel jibl 16-year-olds i ever met. aaron feis was the football coach and we learned about him yesterday. like other faculty, he sacrificed his own life acting as a shield to protect his students. and 15-year-old luke hoyer was remembered by his aunt as a beautiful human being who was greatly loved. and martin duque was remembered by his brother miguel who graduated from the school last year. he posted on social media words cannot describe my pain. i love you, martin. you'll be missed.

and 17 -- >> 17-year-old helena ramsey was remembered by her family as a smart, kind hearted and thoughtful person. somewhat reserved and very serious about her studies. the death of 14-year-old cara loughran was confirmed by a peer counselor at her church. she was remembered, we will always love you and celebrate your beautiful life. and gina montalto was 14 years old. she was a member of the school's color guard. one of her former teachers remembered her as quote, the sweetest soul ever. >> 14-year-old alexander shacker the is also being remembered. he was in the marching band. he was remembered by the congregation beth community in longwood, florida. 14. and last but not least,

16-year-old alyssa alhadeff, a competitive soccer player with an outgoing personality and wide circle of friends. yesterday, her mother made this emotional plea. >> how -- how do we allow a gunman to come into our children's school? how do they get through security? what security is there? there's no metal detectors. the gunman -- a crazy person just walks right into the school, knocks down the window of my child's door and starts shooting -- shooting her. and killing her. president trump, you say what can you do? you can stop the guns from getting into these children's hands. put metal detecters at every entrance to the schools. what can you do? you can do a lot. this is not fair to our families. our children go to school and they have to get killed.

i just spent the last two hours putting the burial arrangements for my daughter's funeral who's 14. president trump, please do something. do something. action. we need it now. these kids need safety now. >> so the plea, president trump, please do something. the president has no problem immediately striking out whenever there's any other attack that doesn't involve guns. immediately casting blame before we know exactly who's committed the atrocities. immediately coming up with solutions. he comes up with solutions that we don't even need for illegal immigration, talking about walls that every expert says we don't

need. he comes up with solutions for terrorism that's extreme we're going to ban 1.5 million muslims from coming into the united states of america when that will never happen. and yet, when our children are slaughtered in schools and we have one school shooting after another after another school shooting, when christians -- in the heart of texas go to church one sunday morning and they get gunned down by the same type of weapon, donald trump says he can't do anything. when a crazed man in las vegas guns down country music fans that just want to go hear to their country music stars and sing along and have a nice night out after working hard all week, donald trump has no answers. he's clueless. paul ryan says we shouldn't talk about this. why we need to figure out what's behind all this, and yet congress is not allowed our

federal government to study the effects of gun violence since 1996. they have banned it every single year. and the people that i respect very much who are intellectuals, i'm just going to say, i think they're just ignorant of the law. maybe they're not lawyers, but they keep talking about fundamental rights. the fundamental right to carry around a military-style assault weapon. justice scalia said that that was not a fundamental right. the united states supreme court said that was not a fundamental right. even when the supreme court was saying that americans for the first time because of the second amendment had the right to keep and bear arms, they specifically said that these weapons of war, these military assault rifles, the type of military assault

rifles that all our police commissioners say should not be in the hands of civilians. so many veterans say should not be in the hands of civilians they are used by the unmoored or the deranged or the angry to go out and gun down human beings as quickly as possible. and mika, thoughts and prayers are fine, but why is donald trump impotent? why is he impotent when it comes to this? he's supposed to be a man of action. he is letting our children get slaughtered. week by week by week, and it will happen again. he's letting christians that go to church get slaughtered. like pontius pilate, paul ryan, donald trump, they're washing their hands of it. letting christians get slaughtered in pews, letting

country fans get slaughtered at concerts. i'll say it one more time. their extreme lobbyists at the nra in washington, d.c., that do not even represent the views of most nra members across america. most republicans, most conservatives across america. they like to say that anybody that doesn't adopt their extremist view is no longer a conservative and lives in a bubble. it's actually they are the ones who actually live in a bubble and the consequences are bloody for our children. 90% of americans -- over 90% of americans say they want enhanced background checks. overwhelming majority of americans say they want a ban on these assault-style weapons. let me just one more time, mika, i'm going to say this one more time because this is the most important thing. if you hear the national rifle association or you hear your republican congressmen or you

hear your republican senators say that somebody that's trying to take away an ar-15 from you, somebody that's trying to stop a deranged person or a terrorist or a domestic abuser from buying a military-style assault style rifle is taking away a fundamental right of yours, they are lying to you. justice scalia, were he alive today, would tell you that they were lying to you. ronald reagan were he alive today would tell you they were lying to you. because ronald reagan and justice scalia, undoubtedly the two greatest conservative icons of the past half century, both said that assault-style weapons are not protected by the united states constitution. and ronald reagan lobbied to get them banned.

so anyway, mika, we have a lot of fake news out there. we've got a president who's acting impotent, saying oh, i can't do anything. paul ryan, oh, i can't do anything. oh, i'm so sad. are you so sad, marco rubio, it's too early to tell, no, marco, it's not. i know you get $3.3 million from the nra. i know you're scared of your base. you proved that in your abandonment of the dreamers. i understand that. you're scared. but you know what? we parents are scared too. our children are scared. our children are terrified. your children see it, mika's children see it, millions and millions of parent's children see this every day. they are scared. give them a reason, marco. give them a reason, paul, give them a reason, donald, to be able to go to school again and

focus on learning. and not wonder whether they are going to be the next targets of violence that's completely unavoidable. i'm sorry. that's completely avoidable. what is not unavoidable is the fact that you are going to have to confront this. the killings are going to continue and you're going to have to become responsible once and for all. for the sake of your voters and for the sake of your children. >> i'll tell you, my kids are petrified. i got texts at 2:00 in the morning, they weren't sleeping. this is their reality. the next generation's reality is to be afraid to be at school. with us at the table we have veteran columnist, msnbc contributor mike barnicle. national affairs veteran for nbc and msnbc, john heilemann. chair of the studies and the

host of "kasie d.c." kasie hunt. eddie, you work on a campus every day. it's for my kids it's a reality they have been since newtown living with what's the exit that we need to look out -- how do i climb out the window? they're traumatized. i don't understand and yet the reality on campus is that this is something you have to think about every day. >> oh, absolutely. and there are areas of this country that experience this without the spectacle of a massacre. there are students in right now in chicago and in oakland and in jackson, mississippi, and las vegas who are entering schools through metal detectors. who inter -- many of those students are experiencing ptsd because they have seen their

friends shot down. and the way in which we have accounted for is not because of the prevalence of guns. it's been because of something wrong where the culture in those particular communities and we know it's the prevalence of guns. these instruments of -- that's all they are. and so we have to do something. one of the things that i -- i'll say this really quickly, listening to president trump yesterday i thought it was just sticky sentimentality. and sentimentality is always the mark of cruelty and dishonesty. >> we also know a few other things, eddie. we know that the vast majority of students in high schools and grammar schools in this country now used to having gun drills in their school. >> yeah. >> we know that teachers are used to getting to know which rooms to go to, safe rooms in schools. we know that it's long past the

time for flowers and yellow ribbons and prayers from presidents. we know that that mother's voice that we just heard in anguish having spent two hours preparing funeral plans for her daughter and then having to listen to the president of the united states as the voice of america. we know that there are parents out there who have to wait for autopsy reports and to claim their children's bodies from a medical examiner's office because of the prevalence of guns on these streets and kasie, we know -- we don't know the answer to the question of how in the united states of america this nation that has been built with the blood, sweat, tears and goodwill of so many people over a couple of centuries, how is it that we have arrived at a point in time when you have to wonder in the wake of all of these shootings, how do 535 members of

congress in good conscience go to work today? >> i wish i had an answer for you, mike. "the boston globe" has an editorial today, they took the whole front page and said, look, we know what's going to happen next here. we see this every time, it's the same thing. there's a tragedy like this, somebody goes in, they use a gun that is -- these kind of weapons were banned for a decade in the united states of america. they are weapons, they are offensive weapons, they are not defensive weapons. and the globe says we know how this will go the next time it happens at a school or a church or a concert but the only questions we don't know the questions to is who, where and how many people. and we unfortunately also know the script that's going to play out on capitol hill and you have already seen kind of the opening

round of that. you have the speaker of the house paul ryan saying this is not the time for politics. you have the president giving a condolence speech that doesn't mention the word guns. that doesn't use that phrase. >> -- mentioned domestic violence last week. it's purposeful, but whatever. >> you will see the campaign contributions and you will also see the threats behind the scenes from the nra to go after you if you do something and it's going to parrize the system all over again. >> the stock of guns go up. >> yeah. >> the stock of guns go up. john heilemann, kurt anderson has written massively on this and broken down some numbers. only 3% of americans -- only 3% of americans own over half the guns in this country. there are people out there that are collecting stockpiles. you also have the number of people who have had guns has dropped to 25% in america.

three out of four don't have guns. hunting -- those who hunt go down 10, 15%. most of those people disassociate themselves with the nra's extreme tactics and i'm wondering if the nra as the trends as they have gone on, have become more and more hysterical. as kurt anderson said a turning point was in '94 when the jack booted thugs accused our law enforcement officers of being like nazi and storm troopers saying they wanted to kick down doors, kill americans, seize their property. an out and out attack on america's law enforcement officers and a few days after that vicious attack against our law enforcement officers we had oklahoma city. the worst domestic terrorist attack ever. you have seen the nra ads they're running now, which just come close -- pretty close to

inciting violence. there's a guy that took a sledgehammer to our image and it is intended to incite extremists. and i just wonder how long paul ryan and the rest of the republican party can comfortably blindly follow these people. even on an issue like bump stocks. >> yeah. >> where americans -- i mean, this is a cheap device that allows a gun which should be illegal, but is legal, to behave and to fire in an illegal manner. and after all those country music fans got slaughtered in las vegas we were going to have the banning of bump stocks. they can't even do that. >> right. well, i have no hope. precious little hope for any kind of change in the short term. and i don't -- you know, i'm not

sure how comfortable or uncomfortable members of congress are who rely on money from the nra or afraid that the money can take them down in the primary. you made the point, joe, which might be the cause for a small glimmer of hope which is demographics often saves us in the country. and you know we saw how on a lot of big cultural questions of questions on civil rights and gay marriage, because the younger generation is different than the older generations we get to the point where things that are incredibly controversial today, 20 years from now or not. so maybe this generation of kids who have gone through these school shootings and the kind of statistics you're citing that kurt has written about will save us 20 or 30 or 40 years from now. i take some hope in that. i will say in the short term -- back to your question of the comfort of current republicans. i'm holding "the new york post"

here. which says, mr. president, please act. "new york post," donald trump's favorite newspaper. this is a murdoch paper. you would have never imagined a headline as recently as a year or two ago and now "the new york post" is banging on donald trump's door. i don't imagine that's a very comfortable front page for donald trump to look at and yet, as you know, not only did he mention guns but he side to the victims we'll do anything at l all -- anything at all he said yesterday to keep you safe. except apparently even have a conversation about the real problem here which as everyone at the table has said is not that american culture is more violent or that americans are different from the rest of the world, but the main difference between america and the rest of the world where these things don't happen is that we have the prevalence of the small-scale weapons of large scale destruction. >> and president trump announced he's making plans to visit parkland, florida, joe. wouldn't it be safe to say for those advising him might want to say, mr. president, when you

face these families if you actually choose to face these families, they will be asking you to talk about guns. they will be making pleas with you about guns. you're going to need to be ready to hear from these families who have had their kids gunned down about the issue of guns. you can't avoid it. >> of course donald trump -- i mean, donald trump of course used to support gun control. he was far more extreme on gun control than i have ever been. and that's the thing. we're talking about guns. again, the nra and gun owners of america have pushed the republicans to such an extreme position that they are literally with 4% of america. we're talking about guns here. i will state again what i stated yesterday. i believe the second amendment says what the second amendment says. i believe americans have a right

to keep and bear arms. i am actually uncomfortable with a lot of carry laws, a lot of extreme carry laws in states like new york and connecticut. i'm not uncomfortable around guns. i have taken my kids out shooting shotguns and going to continue and we'll go hunting one day when they're ready to go hunting. my family's comfortable around guns and your family is comfortable around guns and the positions that i hold on guns are actually more conservative probably than 75% of americans. but the nra and the gun lobbyists occupy 4, 5% of where americans are. and they twist and distort this debate. so when the president of the united states goes down to florida, if somebody says something he'll say i won't let them take your guns away. nobody wants to take the shotguns away.

nobody wants to take their handguns away. they can't because that's unconstitutional now because of heller, because of d.c. versus heller in 2008. they can't do it. we need to take away these weapons of war. look at these mass shootings. look at what's happened. and mika, donald trump can no longer say we can do nothing. what if our leaders said after 9/11 we can't do nothing, our thoughts and prayers are with you. after orlando we can do anything, our thoughts around prayers are with you. after newtown, president obama tried to do something. our thoughts and prayers are with you and the 20 little kids who are slaughtered before christmas vacation and now parkland? are republicans going to keep saying we can do nothing? mika, they can do something.

this is an epidemic and all they keep doing is making excuses. they have to take care of an epidemic like an opioid epidemic. we'll have more on the show plus the indicted former aide to president trump what's reportedly finalizing a plea deal with robert mueller. and the president's push for immigration reform goes down in defeat in the u.s. senate. getting the fewest votes -- the smallest number of any of the proposals on capitol hill. the smallest number. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. >> to every parent, teacher and child who is hurting so badly, we are here for you, whatever you need. whatever we can do to ease your pain.

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congress is no closer to coming one a solution for the young immigrants who arrived as children known as dreamers who are in legal limbo after president trump ended an obama era program protecting them from deportation. the senate blocked multiple immigration related amendments yesterday with four different proposals failing to secure the necessary 60 votes to move on. of the amendments the one closest to president trump's wish list of funding a border wall and curtailing legal immigration sponsored by chuck grassley, it got the fewest votes. just 39. and a narrow plan from

republican john mccain and chris koons got 52 votes. a plan from pat toomey to pull funding from sanctuary cities got 54 votes and the plan sponsored by chuck schumer providing a path to citizenship for dreamers, some border security funding but no major reform of legal immigration also got 54 votes. shortly before the senate voted, president trump tweeted about one of the major compromises, quote, the schumer-rounds-collins immigration bill would be a total cat free claiming it creates a giant amnesty. he called for support of the grassley bill. senate minority leader schumer pointed his finger at the president tweeting this vote is proof that president trump's plan will never become law. if he would stop torpedoing bipartisan efforts a good bill would pass. mitch mcconnell blamed the other side.

>> the democrats failed to produce a solution and instead spent the better part of the week objecting to any votes in the senate. but once again when the hour came to make law instead of just making political points, our friends across the aisle were either unable or unwilling to get something done. after all the talk, all the talk, they hardly came to the table at all. >> speaking of all the talk, i mean, that's remarkable. they've got 54 votes and a bipartisan compromise that republicans killed. so kasie though, it's fascinating. here we have a republican congress, let's take the two big issues the red hot issues we're talking about right now. the drive as we learned in '94, we learned in 2006, more than the economy drives turnout for elections, off year elections.

we have this gun issue where republicans are on the 4% with the nra. 95% of americans are against them. and now on dreamers, they are standing in the way of any solution for dreamers. the president is standing in the way for any solution for dreamers. what is this 70, 75, 80% issue? so you've got 95% of americans that are going to be ginned up over their children being slaughtered in schools. you have 75% of americans and a lot of hispanics and others that are going to be going out and voting over the dreamers issue where the overwhelming majority are for them. then you have the president this week that was forced after nine days to finally speak out, after nine days saying that he was actually against people beating up their wives but it took him nine days. i just -- i just wonder what do

republicans say to each other in their caucus meetings? it's not being snide here. they are walking into one of the greatest off year landslides in u.s. history and on all of these wedge issues that drive turnout, they're with the 5%. i don't get it. >> i think the question, joe, is whether those issues are going to drive people to vote. i mean, i think that if that's one thing -- >> yes. >> there's one thing that americans should take away from the news events of the last few weeks, the tragedy that just occurred at this high school is that they need to get out there and vote because that is what is going to make the difference. you talk about the national rifle association and their impact. the reality is there are people who go to the polls because they care about this issue. and if you are someone who cares, go and show up and make sure that you're sending a message to these people that are in theory representing you. on the daca question, joe, the

one thing i keep coming back to and a number of times i have heard this story told to me in some way or way, whether it was in a private conversation or even publicly the last time that the congress tried to tackle immigration, that comprehensive immigration reform bill they thought they were on the way to getting it through and then eric kantor who was the number two in the house republican conference lost the primary over the issue of immigration and everything fell apart. that also tells you everything that you need to know and, you know, this is another thing that i think john mentioned demographics earlier in the show. these dreamers are not going to forget what happens to them in this debate. and they are going to have kids who are going to be americans. and that i think is going to make a real difference in the long run. >> well, of course, john, with every one of the issues i'm talking about, republicans are bleeding support in the suburbs. whether you talk about

assault-style weapons and children being gunned down in schools or talking about dreamers, children that were born here through no fault of their own, what you talk about the president's misogyny taking nine days to apologize or to say that beating up your wife might be a bad thing, all of these things add up and republicans are looking at the gdp and looking at tax cuts and they're looking at the marginal tax rate. no, midterms like 1994 were decided on cultural wedge issues. the economy was doing well in 1994. 2006, a huge year for democrats. it wasn't decided on the xhi. that was decided on cultural issues. on war. on katrina. and now, here we are we're going into 2018 and republicans are literally -- they seem to be doing everything possible to actually destroy their majority forever. i just -- i don't know what --

is there any -- anything you have heard from republican leaders? i'm sorry, i know i seem dumbfounded by this. but they can lose 50, 60, 70 seats. what's the strategy here? >> well, i'm as dumb founded as you are. but i'll say a couple of things. one, that the coalition -- what democrats like to refer to as the coalition of the ascendant, this notion of the college educated white women, that's supposed to be stronger in the presidential years than in midterm years and the president in 2016 ran a campaign that went straight into the teeth of that argument. still won in a presidential year. so i think parent of what the calculus here is that -- if you win on aging white voters in a presidential year, maybe republicans can figure out a way

to get enough enthusiasm from aging white voters to pull it off in a midterm year. in the long term that's not a great hand to play. but that i think is at least what they have to be thinking right now is that those voters have carried them to victory in a lot of midterm election cycles when turnout is down. we know what's happened with trump is that he's changed the game and we look at these off year elections what we have seen is that the members of the coalition of the ascendant with more activated right now than they were in 2016 when they were quite complacent and they weren't about that enthused about hillary clinton and a lot stayed home. look, i think the most -- the thing that happened yesterday that's got to be -- that's got to be pointing to one more time, the reason that the dreamers are not going to be protected and the reason that immigration reform failed yesterday -- there are a lot of things going on here. but the white house whipped votes against the schumer compromise. they issued veto threats, dhs came out with scare tactic language yesterday.

the trump administration after having said that donald trump said if you get a bipartisan bill together i will sign it. i won't quibble with it. he said that on camera. he said it at a press conference. then yesterday the administration did everything it could to kill the bill that had the most support in the congress. so there's no way for donald trump to at any point in the future if he's held to account say that he did anything to help dreamers. again, i think both in the midterms and in the long term that's pretty bad for the party and for the president. >> he tried to kill the bill and the department of hhs tried to kill the bill. i want to follow up on one point that john said quickly. the coalition of the ascendant energized all you have to do is look at alabama. black turnout higher in doug jones' off year special election race than it was for barack obama. that remains the most remarkable statistic of this year and the reason why republicans should be shaking in their boots right now. >> it also remains our hope for

the future of this country. >> yeah. hope. >> i mean, eddie, what do we look like from the outside looking in? our president can't like begrudgingly discuss the domestic violence. he doesn't mention guns after a school massacre. he is kicking people out. i mean what does this look like from the outside looking in? >> what samuel beckett described as the mess. it's just a mess, complete chaos. what's interesting is what's motivating the politics of this moment. so you have a very extreme immigration position. even when democrats come to the table and compromise that will put them in jeopardy with their progressive base it's rejected on the basis of an extreme position with regards to immigration. you think about what's driving the attack on the fbi, it's this extreme position about the deep state. you think about what's driving the position with regards to gun control, it's this extreme position about the federal government coming in to take our guns so that we can't protect

ourselves. the republican party has been hijacked by extremists. and we need to be -- we need to say very clearly that paul ryan and others are complicit in those -- with those extremists. then the second thing i would say really quickly, mitch mcconnell is playing chess while schumer is playing checkers and he has toness a for why he gave up the leverage in hope that -- that in the hope that mitch mcconnell and republicans would engage this debate in good faith. we see that mitch mcconnell and the republicans are who we thought they were. >> still ahead, russian bots spread fake news in the 2016 election and according to new reports those bots have struck again. this time in the aftermath of the deadly mass shooting in parkland, florida. we'll have those details coming up on "morning joe."

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you like to say this is a mental health issue, well, one of your first acts as president mr. trump was to roll back the regulations that were designed to keep firearms out of the hands of the mentally ill. you did that. don't you let anyone say it's too soon to be talking a about it, you said it after vegas and

sandy hook after the eight now fatal shootings in this country. children are being murdered. so i agree in is a mental health issue. because if you don't think we need to do something about it, you're obviously mentally ill. and -- >> jimmy kimmel speaking out last night as the late night comedy shows again tried to find the right tone in the aftermath of another shooting massacre. still ahead this morning we'll talk to a republican congressman who has supported past proposals to tighten gun laws and the background check system. charlie dent of pennsylvania joins us. "morning joe" is coming right back.

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so in the hours after the diddley shooting in parkland, russian-linked twitter accounts tried using the tragedy to stoke the nation's political divides. kremlin-linked accounts flooded twitter using hashtags like "parkland" and "gun control now" to get into trending conversations, according to data selected by the non-partisan

dashboard hamilton 68. the trolls then added more incendiary hashtags and explosive imagery to drive their readers to more partisan conversations. some of the tweets were adamantly in favor of gun control and others attacked liberals, the media, and lawmakers. without identification by twitter or the government it's impossible to know who is a troll and who is not. twitter has previously said it will continue to strengthen its fight against coordinated efforts to manipulate the platform. twitter has not responded to nbc news's request for comment and, mike, again, this is tech companies i think not fully understanding the power of the platform they've created. >> first of all, much of twitter -- i don't know what percentage -- is a sewer filled with just vile comments, untruthful comments. secondly, everything we have spoken to this morning depending on your point of view is either

abnormal or normal. it's now normal for high school shootings. we view it as normal and move on from it. this week began with the heads of every intelligence agency in the united states of america -- cia, fbi, dna, nsa -- standing before the united states senate saying basically dan coats, the dni, director of national intelligence saying we're under attack. the president of the united states disagrees with every intelligence agency. that's not normal. none of this is normal. >> and that's our new normal, joe. >> none of this is normal. also, we keep talking about how the russians tried to interfere in our last election. they're interfering -- the interference continues. not only did they interfere in the last election, when we had devin nunes trying to release a memo to undermine an investigation into russia they were extraordinarily active, the

russians, their secret service, their bots flooding with hashtags "release the memo" to try to interfere in an american debate to try to derail a russian investigation. then we saw again yesterday once again russian bots obviously connected with russian intel agencies getting involved in a school shooting to try to stir up unrest and undermine our democracy. the great news this week is we had four intel chiefs that spoke independently of the president's insipid remarks on russian interference in american democra democra democracy. that was the good news that came out. the bad news is the russians are continuing to attack our democracy, they're continuing to interfere in our democracy and we have a president who is compromised by vladimir putin, we don't know why, we don't know how, but we will someday and he

is willing to allow the russians, he's opened the front door and allowed the russians to walk in and is now once again perfectly fine with them subverting democracy in these debates and in the election that comes up at the end of this year. coming up, what the attorney general is saying about gun violence in the wake of wednesday's school massacre and, more importantly, what he claims he plans to do about it. plus is the former deputy campaign chairman of the trump campaign ready to flip to help the mueller investigation? we'll have the new reporting on that. "morning joe" is coming right back.

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welcome to the entirely new expedition. i want to speak now directly to america's children, especially those who feel lost, alone, confused or even scared. i want you to know that you are never alone and you never will be. you have people who care about you, who love you, and who will do anything at all to protect you. if you need help, turn to a teacher, a family member, a local police officer or a faith leader. answer hate with love, answer cruelty with kindness. >> president trump! you say what can you do? you can stop the guns from getting into these children's

hands! put metal detectors at every entrance to the schools! what can you do? you can do a lot! this is not fair to our family that our children go to school and have to get killed! i just spent the last two hours putting the burial arrangements for my daughter's funeral, who's 14. president trump, please do something. do something. action! we need it now! these kids need safety now! >> all right so you first saw president trump trying to console the victims but as the mother of one of those murdered children so dramatically demonstrated there, the responsibility of leadership does not stop there. welcome back to "morning joe,"

it's friday, february 16. with us, we have national affairs analyst for nbc news and msnbc john heilemann. chair of the department of african-american studies at princeton university, eddie glaude, jr., nbc news capitol hill correspondent kasie hunt, donny deutsch joins the conversation, tongue twister, along with pulitzer prize winning columnist and associate editor of the "washington post" and msnbc political analyst eugene robinson. joe, that dichotomy between the president's words and the heart felt desperation of that mother was chilling. >> well, i'm just struck by the emptine emptiness, the hypocrisy of donald trump's words "we will do anything protect you." after 20 children were slaughter ed in newtown five years ago

before christmas break. washington did nothing to protect those children. they did nothing to stop american from being gunned down in future attacks. >> after san bernardino they did nothi nothing. after country music fans with shot in las vegas, their bodies being used as target practice they did nothing. bump stock was added to a semiautomatic to make it fire like an illegal weapon. we'll do anything to protect you? they did nothing to protect americans from future kill ings. when assault-style weapons were used to gun down worshippers to

n a christian church in texas, after that they did nothing to save other christians from future attacks. those attacks will come and in one school shooting after another school shooting after another school shooting that leaves parents grieving and experiencing a pain that none of us can even imagine, it traumatizes communities, it traumatizes parents as you said, it traumatizes all of our children and yet donald trump does nothing. paul ryan does nothing. mitch mcconnell does nothing. they choose to be on the side of the 4% and on the wrong side of the 95% who want common-sense gun safety laws enacted and they hide behind this lie.

they hide behind the lie that americans have a constitutional right to own a military-style weapon. they don't. the supreme court has said they don't. states like connecticut, illinois, others have banned those weapons and the supreme court hasn't reversed these bans. you know why? because there is not a constitutional right, there is not a god-given right, there is not a fundamental right as an american to possess weapons of war and the court has said it time and again and when paul ryan says "well, we can't even talk about taking away fundamental rights" that's a lie. they're not fundamental rights and you're not taking away a fundamental right when you want to do what i want to do, what most conservatives want to do, what most republicans want to

do, what most americans want to do and make background checks tougher so murderers like this kid can't get their hands on these mes of war. so domestic abusers can't get their hands on weapons of war. so terrorists can't get their hands on weapons of war. not so long ago, i think after newtown, one of the fbi's most wanted was an islamic radical who was doing videos instructing islamic radicals hiding in the united states how to kill the most americans possible. what did he say? he said go to gun shows because americans will let you go up and purchase these weapons of war and you can kill so many americans that way. well, i mean, that's what

happened in san bernardino. that's what's going to happen -- see, that's the thing, gene. we know this is going to happen again. >> yeah. absolutely. >> and yet paul ryan, mitch mcconnell, donald trump do nothing about it and i will say these words were apparent in parkland along with all of the other horrors that i would be experiencing right now, these words "we will do anything to protect you" would sting the most because donald trump knew this day was coming, donald trump snows another school shooting is coming. donald trump snows another church shooting is coming. more christians will be gunned down in churches in middle america. more country music fans will be gunned down at concerts across america. how do we know? because we also know that more americans are going to die of opioids because we're in the middle of an epidemic and for

some reason, gene, this is the one epidemic that republicans will allow to spread until every last -- i'm sorry, every last excuse is used up and their excuses are so stupid. people have to be really stupid to believe the things that paul ryan and donald trump are telling them right now about constitutional rights. go to google. they're lying to you. >> it's not a constitutional right to have a military-style gun, gene, and yet these republicans keep spreading these lies. >> they do, joe and to add obscenity to tragedy, the one thing they have done is make it easier for people who are mentally ill to obtain weapons and when we say obtain weapons in this country we mean any kind of firearm, including these

military'll assault rifles which have -- which are not needed by hunters, are not needed by sportsman they are for one purpose, to kill the maximum number of people in the minimum amount of time. that's what they're made for and they're very efficient at it. talk to an emergency room physician. talk to them about the difference between someone -- the body of someone who has been shot with a .22-caliber handgun and someone who's been shot by one of these assault rifles and it's as if one said and was quoted recently, it's as if a bomb went off inside. these are weapons designed to do lethal, horrific damage, and that's what they do. that's what they will continue to do as long as there is this in action and what is needed is

the resolve and will among us, among voters, to make this a voting issue on the side of reason. on the side of safety, on the side of the children the way it's a voting issue on the other side for the nra crowd and their tod toadies in congress. authorities are providing new details about what happened on the day of the shooting. 19-year-old nikolas cruz appeared in court for the first time yesterday after reportedly confessing to the deadly shooting at marjory stoneman douglas high school. authorities have released a timeline of events for what unfolded. according to the broward county sheriff's office, cruz arrived at the school at 2:19 p.m. after being dropped off by an uber. about two minutes later, he was inside the school, two minutes. it took him two minutes to get in and he began shooting into

several classrooms. by 2:28 he was running from the school with other students trying to flee. according to the sheriff's office, cruz went inside a walmart and bought a drink at a sun way sandwich shop and then he went to mcdonald's and shat down for a short time. at 4:41 he was detained and taken into custody by police. he is being held without bond on 17 counts of first degree pre-meditated murder. he was placed on suicide watch at the broward county jail. authorities say the ar-15 assault rival used in the attack was bought legally by cruz in february of 2017. the "new york times" points out in florida it's easier to buy an ar-15 than it is to buy a handgun. florida has a three-day waiting period for a handgun purchase but anyone without a felony record, domestic abuse conviction or a handful of other

exceptions such as a commitment to a mental institution can walk into a gun store, wait a few minutes to clear a background check and walk out with an ar-15 style rifle, magazines and ammunition. under federal law, you must be 21 to buy a handgun from a firearms dealer but 18-year-olds can buy semiautomatic rivals. don donny, there's -- >> and mika, i just have to interject. everybody knows by now the nra when they're talking about fighting for gun rights, they know that's a lie. this is all about gun sales. it's all about gun manufacturers getting as much money as humanly possible as quickly as possible. their stocks will go up today because people have been slaughtered? >> there will be a rush on guns. >> stocks always go up after children are slaughtered. gun manufacturers profit off of children being slaughtered in schools.

it's just the truth and mika the fact that you would have these more expensive guns, easier to get for 18-year-olds than handguns? just proves the point, this is all about commerce and they whip low information americans into a frenzy suggesting that their gun rights are going to be taken away and that they have a constitutional right for these weapons of war. they don't have that constitutional right. they have a right to keep and bear arms, they have a right to have handguns, they have a right to have shotguns in their homes to protect themselves. they don't have the right to carry around military-style weapons. >> so i'm trying to do the math as to why you can get a handgun -- it's harder to get a handgun than an assault weapon, donny deutsch, but this is where we are. >> a couple ideas.

let me start with our president who, joe, you know i know . interestingly enough, i was saying maybe donald trump was sent to us for a reason. i'm not being glib here. if you think about what drives him, what motivates him more than anything is to be the ultimate hero, to be the ultimate contrarian. donald trump more than anybody else in history right now has the opportunity. i know if i was ivanka i would walk into his office i'd say dad, wait a second, you've got 30% that will poll owe you anywhere. can you imagine if you came forward and said the buck stops here, there will be enhanced background checks, no more assault weapons. those congressmen will then follow you because they have no choice. you're not getting primaries for three years and even if you were, your 30% to your point would follow you even if you killed somebody on fifth avenue.

>> but let me ask you this, though, donny. donald trump has proven to be a coward. he's proven to be a small man. he's proven to be scared. he is so scared of his most extreme base. he is a cis a coward. name one time when he hasn't stepped out to try to show a little bit of original think in, then he curls back up into fetal position and tlons the most extree listens to his people. >> to f you think about it, no other president because of this weird place he's in has been in this position actually to do it, he can be brave with really no down side. by the way, we would forgive

russia. >> i don't know about that. >> we would say okay, a couple bots jumped in there. this is our children, it's really weird. >> it's an opportunity for him. >> no other president could do this politically, he has served up because of the insane place we've gotten to -- >> 95% of americans would agree with you. >> amazing so i want to play that ch that. kasie, we know two days from now we'll move on. is it possible every tuesday we make children's tuesday and anybody with a microphone or pen from here on in starts every interview with every member of 535 members of congress for 30 seconds, very quickly, sir, are you for enhanced background checks and assault weapons. if they go second amendment, no, yes or no, yes or no. if that starts every interview every tuesday with every politician here on in so that

stays forward and everyone has answer that until we've got 535 people on record one way or the other. every single interview starts every tuesday with that one question to every politician. >> i'm not opposed to trying that. there are an awful lot of us out there and it might be difficult to get us on the same page but what you're talking about is the sort of thing that would potentially start to drive the kind of change we're talking about. there is is political play book of what happens. the speaker says don't talk about politics, then a day or two of conversation, bob goodlatte from the judiciary committee revisiting the idea that in this country it's illegal to do research about the public health impact of guns because of a long ago amendment that was added to a bill. it happened with bump stocks,

they said let's look at it, where are we on bump stocks? nowhere. >> nowhere. >> but sutherland springs, texas, there's a bipartisan bill that john cornyn has signed on to that says the air force should be required to send their mental health information to the background check system. simple. gone nowhere. >> joe said something at the heart of this. at the heart of this is commerce. it's unadulterated greed. folks, this is not about the right to bear arms, it's about the right to sell arms. period. so whether he could be courageous in this moment or not, the fact of the matter is we're going to have to tackle that people are making money off of these weapons of destruction and until we address that fact that the nra is simply a gun manufacturer's lobby, we can talk about guns all day. it's just about greed. period. >> joe, to your point, i think

this is not -- and to donnie's point, there have been a lot of issues where donald trump has been presented with the pocket of he could be nixon going to china and on every one of them -- we saw one yesterday, immigration, another issue, if you want to be nixon going to china, here's a great chance for you. in almost instance he's governed like a conventional conservative and not being interested in seeing any part of china so the point you made is the right point. the president won't do gun control or gun safety. what he will do -- and there's already reporting coming out of the white house to suggest this, is that he's going to focus on the things conservatives like to focus on -- mental health and probably something to do with school safety which are -- some of those things are fine but they're not the point because we all know what the real point is here. so that's where the president is going to end up and he will say we don't want to talk big, we want to solve the problem. the way to solve the problem is

with mental health and school safety. probably those won't go where but as i said, not nixon, not interested in seeing china. or jina, as he says. >> this is such a political win. it's one of these great examples of where people go, wow, he's being courageous and 95% of americans are for him on background checks. 80% of americans would be with him on military-style assault weapons. he doesn't show that courage, but when he goes to mental health as we've said before, the first gun law he signed made it easier for people with mental illness to purchase guns and now they're talking about certain cuts to health kcare that would make the federal government less

responsive to people like the guy that gunned down all of those students yesterday. he at no time talk about mental health because he and the republican party have made it easier for people with mental health challenges to buy military-style weapons. >> medicaid provides something like 25% or pays for something like 25% of mental health services in this country so when you cut medicaid you're going to cut mental health funding. not that the republicans have ever been lobbying for more mental health funding, they just want to talk about it for a while and not do anything, continue with the cuts so that's totally unserious. i do not see donald trump doing a nixon to china sort of thing on guns but to eddie's point, when you talk about commerce, one other change there should be is there should be liability. there should be liability for

the manufacturers of these assault weapons and it's ridiculous when they say well you can't tell the difference between an assault weapon and -- of course you can. you can, i can, anybody can. you draw a line and say, look, when these weapons of war are used in this way, there is liability for the manufacturer. that would go a long way toward helping us end this carnage. >> mika, there are a lot of news stories out today and obviously this horrible tragedy in florida has taken upmost of our time but we do need to talk at some point about a possible deal between rick gates, one of donald trump's top campaign advisers and the man who nose where all of the bodies are buried when it comes to paul manafort, who probably knows where a lot of bodies are buried when it comes

to russian involvement in the campaign. he's apparently close to striking a deal with bob mueller, that would be gates and flynn and papadopoulos and -- t it's -- this is a significant development in the investigation when you have flynn, papadopoulos, paul manafort and rick gates all indicted and three of the four cooperating with the investigation and there's just no telling. i talked to a trump insider this past weekend who said there is no telling how many people inside the white house have been wearing wires for how long. there's no loyal city to the president and this person estimated maybe up to a dozen people were wearing wires and have been for a long time, this gates breaking news is significant and we should talk about it soon. >> to your point very quickly. donald, you want to back

everybody up on the russian probe? save the kids. it's a great trade, dude. it might actually save your job. >> well, with this gates story we'll say when you think about the possibilities there, this seems like a very tenuous presidency. eugene robinson, thank you very much. still ahead on "morning joe," there are 100 members in the u.s. senate and if they voted in line with the views of the american public, 95 of them would support background checks for all gun guyebuyers. another 80/20 issue? allowing dreamers into the country to apply for citizenship but as we saw on capitol hill yesterday, immigration reform may be further away than ever. republican congressman charlie dent, who does support reforms on both issues, joins us next. [ clock ticking ]

what can a president do in thirty seconds? he can fire an fbi director who won't pledge his loyalty. he can order the deportation of a million immigrant children. he can threaten an unstable dictator armed with nuclear weapons. he can go into a rage and enter the nuclear launch codes. how bad does it have to get before congress does something? swho live within five miles of custyour business?-54, like these two... and that guy. or maybe you want to reach women, ages 18 to 34, who are interested in fitness... namaste. whichever audience you're looking for, we'll find them we're the finders. we work here at comcast spotlight,

and we have the best tools for getting your advertising message out there. anywhere, any way your audience watches. consider them found. >> as long as people like steve miller are in charge of the white house, this thing goes nowhere. to the people at the white house, if you attack every proposal coming out of a congress, it's going to be hard

for you to get 60 votes. >> joining us now, republican congressman charlie dent of pennsylvania who is retiring from congress. he's a member of the house committee on appropriations and a former member of the house ethics committee and, joe, i think we share the same sentiment that we wish he was not retiring. joe, take it away. >> we certainly wish you weren't because charlie you are a true conservative unlike whatever is -- has morphed into the republican party. a couple quick issues, i've been swatching my head trying to figure out how your republican party and my former republican party could be so concerned about background checks that they would be against 95% of americans who want enhanced background checks. like wise, this dreamers issue. 80% of americans believe that children who came to this country through no fault of their own should be allowed to stay here.

what's the end game for republicans? the president said he was for it, republicans seem to be for it. are these children that have grown up in america who see themselves as american citizens? are they going to be kicked out? >> i tell you, joe, my frustration in congress is this, our ability to take on i'll say incremental bipartisan solutions to controversial issues in congress has diminished. i mean, on the dreamers, in my district just last weekend muhlenberg college does public polling, very reputable. nearly 90% of the people in my district want to accommodate these dreamers. make sure they're legal or citizens. this is a no brainer. 90%. i certainly support this. what has to happen in the house of representatives is that the speaker needs to allow these bills on the floor. we call it a clean of the hill strategy. the goodlatte bill, the hurd bill. i can go down a long list of bipartisan bills, allow each one

of them to have a vote and which ever bill gets the most vote and over 218 is the one that passes. very simple, very straightforward. that's what we should be doing. we could do border security along with accommodating the dreamers. very simple. background checks, i tell you, joe, in my state, in 1995 when tom ridge was governor and i was in the general assembly we passed enhanced background checks for private sales of pistols. pat toomey and joe manchin offered something similar after sandy hook. i certainly support that. but something like that, a common sense measure we can't get considered. ban the bump stock, carlos curbelo after las vegas, most of us didn't know what a bump stock was before then, we do now. ban the bump stock, we should do that. susan collins has a reasonable proposal on the terror watch list to -- the no-fly list to make sure people should be prohibited from purchasing firearms under certain circumstances. so we have common sense

proposals. i wish we could take up these incremental proposals on dreamers right now especially. it's frustrating to see what happened in the senate as well as these reasonable firearm measures. >> congressman, it's john heilemann here. i want to stick on the gun control or gun safety question. i think i know that as you laid out there's a bunch of proposals, i believe you're saying none of them are going anywhere, right? >> well, at the moment they're not and i think we should have that conversation taking on these i'll say reasonable bipartisan incremental changes that could pass. >> explain to me not -- again, i think most people -- you're a savvy guy and you're retiring so you can speak the truth here. it's not going anywhere. so what would be required for that to change? what? the political calculus needs to shift over not in the next couple weeks because that won't happen but over the course of the next two, four, six, eight years where we could have reasonable conversations about

gun safety measures chon there is, as we discussed all morning, broad not just bipartisan support but overwhelming support among the american people and voters? >> john, i believe the leaders in both parties in many ways are captive to their bases, slave to their bases and i've often felt that. a lot of members are afraid to cross the base. political safety is playing to the base. they're worried about primaries. some of us represent marginal or swing districts where we have to appeal to swing voters and there are a lot of them out there and we have to appeal to them and our political safety is the center. that's the reality. >> let me ask you though, charlie. if you're talking about -- let's say background checks. this is an issue that an overwhelming majority of republicans nationwide support, enhanced background checks for gun purchases. the majority of conservatives support it. 95% of americans support it.

are they really afraid of their base or are they just afraid of the nra running ads against them? >> well, probably the latter. i can't agree with you more, enhancing background checks for private sales of firearms is not that controversial and is already being done in many states like mine which is a pretty pro-gun state, pennsylvania, we're already doing it so to extend this to the federal level isn't a big deal. so i can't for the life of me understand why so many folks are having a hard time with this. same with the bump stock. really? automatic weapons have been banned in the united states since the 1930s and this bump stock was a way to circumvent it so you could take a semiautomatic and turn it into an automatic. shouldn't be allowed. so i can't explain it, know. i think they're afraid they're going to get primaried and lose their elections and i think those fears are overblown and overstated. >> losing elections? try losing a child?

. they need to do the math better. congressman charlie dent, thank you very much. coming up, president trump calls for fixing the mental health system after the florida shooting, but one of the first bills he signed made it easier for people with mental illness to buy guns, we'll go live to the white house with more on that, plus the major development in the russia investigation. steve bannon speaking to mueller's investigators and the president's indicted former campaign adviser rick gates reportedly close to a plea deal. we're back in a moment. napoleon is duping us! all around louisiana... you're a nincompoop! (phone ping)

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>> no child, no teacher, should ever be in danger in an american school. no parent should ever have to fear for their sons and daughters when they kiss them good-bye in the morning. joining us from the white house, nbc news national correspondent peter alexander. peter, president trump finally spoke yesterday about the mass shooting in florida and it's more of what he didn't say than what he did that's getting a lot of attention. >> yeah, mika, i think that's exactly right. the president with no public

events on his schedule today. he will be leaving for his mar-a-lago estate for this weekend. he said yesterday he's planning to visit the parkland area to see victims' families and local officials to help play a role in the federal response to coordinate efforts there. we don't know specifically when the meeting will take place but you raise an important point which is yesterday in his nearly seven-minute set of remarks, the president did not use one word one time, he didn't say the word "gun" or "guns throughout the entirety of those remarks. i pressed white house officials overnight and they say it was the president's intent to heal and unite the nation with his comments yesterday. they said trying to come up with a prescription at this time before we have the answers -- we've heard this before -- was not smart. still, he focused on mental illness, never said guns, but even mental illness the president referenced the report

cart for this white house is not that good. consider the budget they laid out earlier this week for 2019. it would slash medicaid spending by more than 22%. medicate today inbly provides 25% of the mental health care in this country so if mental illness, mental health care issues were the problems not sufficiently funded here the white house not doing much about that. a white house official tells me they have been reaching out to the families of the victims at sandy hook and columbine as well as others to set up meetings and phone calls in the coming weeks, specifically on this topic, one other item we're watching today not to be missed in the controversies over the course of the week, steve bannon, the president's former chief strategist, nbc news can report, met for more than 20 hours over multiple days with the special counsel robert mueller as part of the russia investigation on capitol hill you can see bannon was there for more of his house

intelligence committee meetings, more than two dozen questions negotiated between the white house and intelligence committee's counsel. mika? >> nbc's peter alexander, thank you very much. >> just in terms of trump going down there. i hope those poor parents say to him "we don't want you. don't come, mr. president." i think he needs to be ready to hear about it. >> if i was any one of those parents i would take it as an insult if he showed up. >> peter mentioned the steve bannon development, cnn is reporting that indicted former aide to president trump's campaign and transition rick gatsds is finalizin -- gates is plea deal. according to the report which has not been confirmed by nbc news, gates is indicating he's poised to cooperate in mueller's investigation.s familiar with t

say he's been in negotiations for about a month. his lawyers requested to withdraw from the case over irreconcilable differences over paul manafort. if the report is accurate gates would join two other trump advisers who are cooperating with mueller and put pressure on manafort who pleaded not guilty alongside gates in october. gates continued to serve in the trump campaign after manafort's ouster and went on to be the deputy chairman of the trump inaugural committee and was reportedly a frequent visitor in the first month's of the trump white house. gates declined to comment for the story. joe, what are the possibilities here? >> well, the possibilities are, again, you have another toppe a adviser to donald trump being indicted for a crime. for a man who says he chooses best people, his national

security adviser and closest traveling partner was indicted and then of course the man he said was one of his top two foreign policy aides was indicted. now you have a top campaign deputy being indicted and his campaign chairman indicted. it appears gates has passed the point of no return. he had the queen for a day interview where you're allowed to go in front of prosecutors, spill your guts, talk about every crime you committed. it's part of the plea deal and you can't be prosecuted far if you cooperate and don't lie during that conversation. there is no coming back from that. if those reports are accurate. burrell has anoth-- robert muel

another person who will plead guilty. >> it's called a proffer, a dance back and forth between a prosecutor and potential person who might become a cooperative witness and if they choose to go forward with gates he will be a cooperative witness against who knows, against the administration, but all of it i would submit is part of the same story that we've been discussing for the past 48 hours and that is defining the soul of america. who are we? it has to do with the school shooting in florida. it has to do with this administration which daily tries to destroy the underpinnings of government that we've known since the new deal, trying to destroy that. you take the two elements that we're talking about principally today, daca, the people who are here not of their own choosing

and not to be allowed to remain here, overwhelmingly popular in terms of voter sentiment and the school shooting and you wonder what is wrong with us and why we don't take advantage more of the gifts that america gifts us. america gives us gifts of liberty, independence of thought and travel. it gives souse many gifts but it gives us one gift the majority of citizens refuse to take advantage of, it's called voting. so vote instead of bitching. >> please. >> and mika i'm going to find a silver lining. donald trump following up on what mike barnicle said, donald trump has declared war against the media and he's declared war against the intel agencies, the media outlets that he's declared war against are having their best years in probably two decades and are having more readers, more viewers, more

advertisers so donald trump has lost that war. he's made the media stronger and his war on the intelligence communities, it's been even more shameful, even more hateful to the professionals that commit their lives everyday to protect us as americans, to protect children in schools, to protect u.s. against terrorists. guess what? we saw all four intel heads go to the hill, hold their heads up high, tell the truth and speak truth to power. you know what? in a week of bleak news, that's something to be thankful. up next, our next guest literally wrote the book on white house chiefs of staff and he says john kelly is making a run at being the worst in modern history. author chris whipple joins the conversation. plus, this morning the "new yorker" magazine is out with a sweeping new piece entitled

"donald trump, a playboy model, and a system for concealing infidelity." reported by ronan farrow, the article tells of one woman's account of clandestine meetings, financial transactions and legal pacts designed to hide an extramarital affair. we'll follow up on his reporting on "morning joe." and msnbc will have coverage on this story throughout the day. we'll be right back. ♪ oh, look... another anti-wrinkle cream in no hurry to make anything happen.

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with us now, "new york times" best selling author and writer for vanity fair, chris whiple. updated version of his book, the gate keepers. how the white house chief of staff defined every presence. includes a new chapter on the trump administration. and it's going to be released in paper back on march 6. an excerpt of the new feature was just featured in vanity fair. thank you for being with us. we said earlier in teasing the

segment that you were arguing general kelly is making a run at being the worst chief of staff of modern times. >> this is a guy who famously defined the job as we would not be managing the president. he failed by his own narrow definition of the job. but i would argue that kelly's failed in a larger sense. he's failed to tell donald trump hard truths. he has reinforced all of trump's worst instincts. most presidents who come in pull of thinking they're the smartest guys in the room figure out after a while there's a big difference between campaigning and governing. campaigning you demonize your opponent. governing you got to build coalitions. the it's the chief's job to help the president do that. >> you think he's worse that

holderman. >> holderman is the guy who wrote the template even though he failed miserably in watergate. i would have said the guy who had a lock on worst chief was ronald reagan. no coincidence that it happened on his watch. kelly reminds me of reagan. he's arrogant. and politically inept. >> this is an extraordinary book and an extraordinary time to have this book coming out again in paperback. i would submit that maybe jim baker was the best chief of staff in the last 30-40 years and only because i would like to ask you about this, the definition of chief of staff, i don't think most americans realize how powerful, how all-reaching, touches every as

meniscecto pekt -- aspect of the government. >> the same company. these were guys who were grounded and confident in their own skin. could walk in oval office and close the door and tell reasonable doubt reagan or bill clinton what they don't want to hear. dick cheney say the chief had more power than the vice president. that was true except when cheney was vice president. you can't overstate the importance of the position. he's the guy who helps the president execute his agenda and tells him. it's hard for min to medical leave that could be true. you got a lot of good stuff. including preinaugural meeting with the former chiefs. give us your best reince priebus, best story. he obviously defined a lot of the first year. >> in fair rns to reince, ness s

never empowered by donald trump to carry out the job. a really telli ing scene in the book ten former white house chiefs came to the white house, sat down to give him advice. barack obama walked into that meeting. looked at his former chiefs and said to priebus, these guys often told me stuff that made me mad. that's the most important thing a white house chief does. that's what you have to do for donald trump. those white house chiefs sorry to say the vast majority of them came away saying god help him. god save him. not only is trump impossible, but priebus really doesn't understand the job. one of them said he reminded him of a personal aide and cruise director. now, you know, i don't think that reince would agree with that, but it is a tough job. >> cruise director on the titanic. >> love boat. >> chris, thanks very much. paper back version of the book the gate keep skeeper is a grea

out march 6. still ahead, remembering the victims. all 17 student and faculty in the florida student massacre have been identified. tell you what we're learning about every one of them this morning. "morning joe" will be right back. need a change of scenery? kayak compares hundreds of travel and airline sites so you can be confident you're getting the right flight at the best price. cheers! kayak. search one and done. the markets change... at t. rowe price... our disciplined approach remains.

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need. whatever we can do to ease your pain. we are all joined together as one american family. and you're suffering is our burden also. >> good morning. it's friday. february 16. welcome to "morning joe." president trump yesterday addressing the nation. after wednesday's school shooting in florida. we're going to show you more of what was said and the one word he didn't use that caught people's attention. last night thousands came together to remember the victims as we learn new details about how the massacre unfolded. also this morning, could the dream be coming to an end for the dreamers. four proposals failed to pass in the senate. the one for the president's reform getting the least number of votes. what could be a major development in the russia investigation. in reporting that former trump campaign adviser rick gates is

finalizing a plea deal with special counsel robert mueller's office, but we begin this morning with the victims of wednesday's mass murder at parkland florida's douglas high school. last night, the community gathered to remember the 17 students and faculty killed. we want to take a moment here to talk about all 17. we'll start with 15-year-old peter wang. remembered as funny. caring and selfless by his cousin. she tells a local paper that peter was born in brooklyn new york and was wearing a gray rotc shirt when he was gunned down. >> the family of 14-year-old alayna petty described her as vibrant and determined. a young woman who loved to serve. we're told she was among the hundreds of volunteers who rushed to help those devastated by hurricane irma. 49-year-old chris hixon.

cool's athletic director and wrestling coach. we're told that whenever there was an altercation, a fight or any problem around campus, mr. hixon always found a way to get to the scene and deal with it. had 14-year-old freshman jamie guttenberg is being remembered as someone who always looked out for the underdog and always cared for the bullied. we're told that she loved to dance and wanted to be an occupational therapist. joaquin aoliver was 17 years ol. according to facebook page, david was among was of his favorite musical artists. listed rafael nadal as favorite athlete. and baseball was his favorite sport and the miami heat his fair sport's team. he also said that chuckee cheese has the best pizza. >> also lost, 35-year-old scott

michael. beloved geography teacher. found shielding his students when he was gunned down. the cousin of 18-year-old meadow pollic said everyone should know how great she was. beautiful inside and out. baby of the family who everyone wanted to protect. told she was a good student who planned to attend lynne university in boca raton, florida. nicholas vorat was 17 years old. a senior. already committed to be a swimmer for the university of indianapolis. remembered by swimming coach as energetic and vibrant kid. 16-year-old carmen was a national merit scholar semifinal list last year. cousin called her one of the smartest 16-year-olds i've ever met. aaron feis was the 37-year-oldf about yesterday.

like other faculty, sk fehe sacrificed his own life shielding his students. luke hower remembered by his aunt. marten was a 14-year-old freshman. remembered by his brother miguel who graduated from the school last year. he posted on social media words cannot describe my pain. i love you marten, you'll be missed. and 17-year-old helena ramsey was remembered by her family as a smart kind hearted and thoughtful person. somewhat reserved and very serious about her studies. the death of 14-year-old kara was confirmed by a peer counselor at her church. kara was remembered by a neighbor on facebook. who said, quote, we will always love you and celebrate your beautiful life. and gina was also 14 years old. she was a member of the school's

color guard. one of her former teachers remembered her as, quote, the sweetest soul ever. >> 14-year-old alexander is also being remembered. he was in marching band. he was remembered by the congregation beth community in long wood florida. 14. and last but not least, alice is a, a very competitive soccer player with outgoing personality and wide circle of friends. yesterday, her mother made this emotional plea. >> how, how do we allow a gunman to come into our children's school? how do they get through security? what security is there? there's no metal detectors. the gunman a crazy person just walks right into the school. knocks down the window of my child's door and starts shooting. shooting her. and killing her.

president trump, you say what can you do? you can stop the guns from getting into these children's hands! put metal detectors at every entrance to the schools. what can you do? you can do a lot. this is not fair to our families. and our children go to school and have to get killed. i just spent the last two hours putting the burial arrangements for my daughter's funeral who is 14. president trump, please do something. do something. action! we need it now. these kids need safety now. >> so, the plea, president trump please do something.

the president trump has no problem immediately striking out whenever there's any other attack that did you want involve guns. immediate casting blame for before we know who committed the atrocities. immediately coming up with solutions. he comes up with solutions we don't need for illegal immigration. talking about walls that. that will never happen. and yet, when our children are slaughtered in schools, and we have one school shooting after another school shooting after another school shooting, when christians, the heart of texas go to church one sunday morning and get gunned down by the same type of weapon. donald trump says he can't do anything when a crazed man in

las vegas guns down country music fans. they just want to go hear their favorite music stars. listen to their songs and sing along and have a nice night out after working hard all week. donald trump has no answers. he's clueless. paul ryan says we shouldn't talk about this. why we need to figure out what's behind all of this and yet congress is not allowed. our federal government to study the effects of gun violence since 1996. they've banned it every single year. we have people that i respect very much who are intellect yules and i'm just going to say, i think they're just ignorant of the law. maybe they're not lawyers. they keep talking about fundamental rights. the fundamental right to carry around a mild style assault weapon.

justice scalia said that's not a fundamental right. the supreme court said that's not a fundamental right. even when the supreme court said they had the right to keep and bear arms, they specifically said these weapons of war, these military assault rifles, the type of military assault rifles that all of our police commissioners say should not be in the hands of civilians. so many veterans say should not be in the hands of civilians. they are used by the deranged or the angry to go out and gun down human beings as quickly as possible. and mika, thoughts and prayers are fine, but why is donald trump impotent. why is he everyone tent when it comes to this.

he is supposed to be man of action. he is letting our children get slaughtered week by week by week and it will happen again. he's letting christians that go to church get slaughtered. paul ryan, donald trump, they're just washing their hands of it. like pilot. letting christians get slaughtered. letting country fans get slau s slaughtered at concerts. i'll say it one more time. there are extreme lobbyists as the nra in washington, d.c. that do not even represent the views of most nra members across america. most republicans across america. most conservatives across america. they like to say that anybody that doesn't adopt their extremist view is no longer a conservative and lives in a bubble. no. it's actually they are the ones who are actually live in a bubble. and the consequences are bloody for our children. 90% of americans -- over 90% of

americans say they want enhanced background checks. overwhelming majority of americans say they want a ban on assault styled weapons. let me just one more time mika, i'm going to say this one more time, it's the most important thing, if you're out there and you hear the national rifle association or you hear your republican congressman or you hear your republican senators say, that somebody that is trying to take away an ar 15 from me, somebody trying to stop a deranged person or a terrorist or a domestic abuser from buying a military style assault style weapon is taking away a fundamental right of yours, they are lying to you. justice scalia were he alive today would tell you they are lying to you. ronald reagan, were he alive today, he would tell you they are lying to you.

reasonable doubt reagan and justice scalia undoubtedly the two greatest conservative icons of the past half century, bohale not protected by the united states constitution. and ronald reagan lobbied to get them banned. straight ahead. continue the conversation. how school campuses across the country are dealing with the new reality and how how members of congress are not. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. and meet dave. hey. why is dark magic so spell-bindingly good, he asks? let me show you. let's go. so we climb. hike. see a bear. woah. reach the top. dave says dark magic is a bold blend of coffee with rich flavors of uganda, sumatra, colombia and other parts of south america. like these mountains, each amazing on their own. but together? magical. all, for a smoother tasting cup of coffee.

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when my vehicle i wwas hit by an ied.r in iraq i looked down and i knew i was out of the fight. but playing for team usa has been a second chance to represent my country. i get to show my children and the world that, yeah, i might have been knocked down, but i'm up, and i'm honored to be able to represent the flag. comcast is grateful to all who have served our country, and we're proud to bring the 2018 olympic and paralympic winter games home to everyone. welcome back to "morning joe." we have mike barnicle. john hallman. chair of the university of studies. nbc news capitol hill correspondent and host of kasie

dc on msnbc. casey hunt. we'll skip the -- we'll skip it today. you work on a campus every day. it's for my kids, it's a reality they have been since newtown. living with what's the exit that we need to look at. how do i need to climb out the wind window. they're traumatized. i don't understand and yet the reality on campus is that this is something you have to think about every day. >> absolutely. areas of this country that experience this without the spe spectacle of mass massacre. students in chicago and oakland and jackson, mississippi and las vegas who are entering schools through metal detectors. who have many of those students are experiencing ptsd because they've seen their friends shot down. the way in which we've accounted

for that is not because of the prevalence of guns. it's been because of something wrong with the culture in those particular communities. so we have to do something. one of the things -- and i'll say this really quickly. listening to president trump yesterday, i thought it was just sticky sentimentality. sentimentality is always the mark of cruelty and dishonesty. >> we also know a few other things, eddy. we know the vast majority of students and high schools and grammar schools in this country are now used to having gun drills in their school. >> yes. >> and we know that teachers are used to getting to know which rooms to go to, safe rooms in schools. we know it's long past the time

for flowers and yellow ribbons and prayers from presidents. we know that mother's voice we just heard in anguish having spent two hours preparing funeral plans for her daughter and then having to listen to the president of the united states is the voice of america. we know that there are parents out there who have to wait for autopsy reports and to claim their children's bodies from a medical examiner's office because of the prevalence of guns on their street. and we don't know the answer to the question of how in the united states of america, this nation that has been built with the blood, sweat, tears and good will of so many people over a couple of centuryies, how is it we arrived at a point in time that you have to wonder in the

wake of all these shootings, how do 535 members of congress in good conscious go to work today? >> i wish i had an answer for you, mike. the boston globe took the whole front page and said look, we know what's going to happen next here. we see this every time. it's the same thing. there's a tragedy like this. somebody goes in. they use a gun that is -- these kinds of weapon were banned for a decade in the united states of america. they are weapons. they are offensive weapons. they are no defensive weapons. the globe says, we know how this is going to go the next time it happens at a school or a church or a concert, but the only questions we don't know the answer to are who, where, and how many people. we unfortunately already know the script that's going to play out on capitol hill.

you have the house speaker paul ryan saying this is not the time for politics. you have the president giving a condolence speech that doesn't mention the word gun. >> just like he didn't mention domestic violence last week. it's purposeful. >> you'll see campaign contributions and you will also see threats behind the scenes from the nra to go after you if you do something. and it's going to paralyze the system all over again. coming up on "morning joe." just like that, immigration reform goes down in flames on capitol hill. casey hunt has new details on the defeat of four separate proposals. what, if anything, might come next. morning joe is back in a moment. . those who fear the future... and those who embrace it. the future is for the unafraid. ♪ ♪

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congress is no closer for coming up to a solution for the young children known as dreamers who are in legal limbo after president trump ended obama era program protecting them from deportation. the senate blocked multiple immigration related amendments yesterday with four different proposals failing to secure the necessary 60 votes to move on. of the amendments, the one closest to president trump's wish list, funding a border wall

and curtailing legal immigration. sponsored by republican senator chuck grassley. it got the fewest votes. just 39. a narrow plan from republican john mccain and democratic chris co coons that included protection for immigrants got 52 votes. a plan from republican pat toomey to pull funding from sanctuary cities secured 54 votes and bipartisan plan sponsored by chuck schumer providing a path to dreamers, some border security funding and no major form of legal immigration also got 54 votes. shortly before the senate voted, president trump tweeted about one of the major compromises, the bill would be a total catastrophe. claiming it creates a giant amnesty. in the second tweet, trump called for support of the grassley bill. senate minority leader chuck schumer pointed finger at

president saying this vote is proof that president trump's plan will never become law. if he would stop torpedoing bipartisan efforts, a good bill will pass. republican majority mitch mcconnell blamed the other side. >> say democrats failed to produce a solution and instead spent the better part of the week objecting to any votes in the senate. once again, when the hour came to actually make law instead of just making political points, our friends across the aisle were either unable or unwilling to get something done. after all the talk, all the talk, they hardly came to the table at all. >> casey, is this fascinating. we have a republican congress. let's take to two big issues. the red hot issues we're talking about right now. that drive as we learned in '94 when we learned in 2006. the economy drives turnout for

elections and off year elections. we've got this gun issue. republicans on the 4% with the nra. 95% of americans are against it. now on dreamers. they are standing in the way of any solution for dreamers. the president is standing in the way for any solution for dreamers. what this? 70, 75, 80% issue. 90% of americans worked up over children being slaughtered in schools. 75% of americans and a lot of hispanics and others that are going to be going out voting over the dreamers issue. then you have the president saying he was actually against people beating up their wives. it took him nine days. i just -- i just wonder what do

republicans say to each other in their caucus meetings? i'm not being snidy. they are walking into one of the greatest off year landslides in u.s. history and on all these wedge issues that drive turnout, they're with the 5%. i don't get it. they need to get out there and vote. that's what is going to make the difference. you talk about the national rifle association and their impact. people go to the polls because they care asbout this issue. if you are someone who cares, go and show up and make sure you're sending a message to these people that are in theory

representing. the one thing i keep coming back to and number of times i heard this story, in a conversation or even people have started saying it publicly. the last time their congress tried to tackle immigration, that comprehensive immigration reform bill, they thought they were on the way to getting it through. then eric canter e wwho recolle w -- who was the number two. everything fell apart. lost the primary. that tells you everything you need to know. coming up on morning joe, one of the millions of americans whose views on gun rights are not mutually exclusive. monote williams says he is both a proud gun owner and wants safety laws. joins the conversation next on "morning joe."

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welcome back to morning joe. we are now joined equity author and political commentator susan. and former talk show host montel williams. a distinguished 22 year career in u.s. armed forces and is out this morning with a paper titled i'm a gun owner. the time spent with school shooting victims haunts me. mike barnicle and donny deutsche are still with me as well. montel, like myself, you're a gun owner. i would guess also not uncomfortable around firearms. neither am i. you probably think the second amendment is a really good thing. and yes, you have some real concerns. talk about it. >> i have some concerns. i tell you right now. first, thanks for having me on. to all those families out there, we got to remember that this last couple days we're talking about one incident here in florida, but over the last year, i think there have been 18 shootings in schools and over the last ten years, 12 years,

just proliferation. i participated with a school in ohio back in 2012. after all the cameras left, i spent almost two years with those kids going up there, visiting the school. talking to kids. going to football games. hanging with some of the survivors. two years almost to the date of the massacre, in washington state, there was another shooting and that night i was at a football game and i had the kids call the kids in maryville. and for the next two years, i've participated and tried to talk to those kids. right now. in the last couple of days. i've been getting e-mails, texts from kids who said enough montel. enough. we need to do something. we're begging parents to do something responsibly. do something. and that's when as a gun owner, i have to stop and say come on,

man. are we this stupid? are we this stuck on stupid that we will spend more time arguing where a child goes to the bathroom in a school than talking about protecting that child's life in that school? what have we really denigrated ourselves down to, man? as a proud gun owner, i have 17 guns, man. i spent 22 years in the military. remember you taught me how to shoot a weapon. you told me it was okay. so it was okay for me. all my guns are locked up. in a safe. and i use them maybe once a year to go target practice and shoot rocks. okay, but i think i'm trained. i had somebody checked off that block at expert and say go do your thing. we have children buying guns. guys, come on: we have to do something about this. have to do something not next year, not two years from now. today. >> montel, you really fit the

profile of those who are most concerned about military style assault weapons getting to the hands of kids because if you talk to police commissioners, if you talk to marines, if you talk to former service people that have been in the military and understand the power of these type of weapons, they all say the same thing. or almost all of them say the same thing. civilians without proper training should not be able to go and buy these things faster as you can in florida than you can buy a handgun. >> they have to restrict this. i tell you something, if we just beat up, we're going to have a problem. look up a 30 odd six with a seven round clip. that 30 odd six is a 5.5 two millimeter bullet. that bullet will go through doors. there are a lot of hunters who have that same weapon. i can walk right into a store and pick them up tomorrow.

can i shoot 16 rounds in a row. no, seven drop the clip. seven drop the clip. we got to recognize it seems important. if you look at the 30 odd six. it's got a scope and looks like a hunting weapon. same bullet. same voracity. same damage. what i'm going to propose is that what we ought to do is like you already said, didn't steal my thunder buddy, but you did you talk about the fact 90% of americans, 77% of gun owners stated we support background checks. if you just look at the polls, people in america are getting tired of this because let me tell you, today, i heard a couple reporters saying there's a thousand people whose lives are affected. i get texts and e-mails from kids of each of the high schools i participated in saying enough. there are 15, 20, 30, 40,000 kids this morning having ptsd.

come on, man. >> that's the thing. for people to say this is just a small subset of children who are being affected, i can tell you somebody very close to me had a child last night in college who didn't sleep. who was so traumatized by what happened that -- and i hear it all the time. it's not just children in florida in the vicinity just like it wasn't children in connecticut who were just traumatized. this has an impact across our country every time there's a shooting. and our children live in this fear. >> there's no doubt about that, joe. if you do a national mri, united states of america today, you're going to see elements of rage, frustration, anger, all of those pop up on an mri given the events we live through nearly weekly. certainly daily in some cities like chicago. you wrote yesterday the parkland tragedy is the symptom of

another tragedy. we've become people impervious to one another's pain. >> as a father, my thoughts seeing a story like this are that not just our leaders are failing these people. we collectively, all of us, are failing these people. and not only because of what our gun control laws are, but because of what we have allowed the society to become in every aspect. we have become a society where we love our own policy positions more than other people's children. what kind of society is that? we've become the kind of society where we are immovable on any issue. there's no set of facts that will move many of us on the issues that we think we know everything about. we've become -- i have lived in many countries and traveled in many -- more triable societies, less developed societies where two things happen. people rely on the gods rather than their own sense of agency

to make the world better. we're becoming like that. where secondly people kind of only feel for the pain of people of their cast, their tribe, their family. people who look like them. they don't feel anything for fellow citizens. we are becoming like that. we are becoming a triable premodern society. this is not just about a shooting as tragic as the shooting is. it's not just about gun control and figures out whether you ban ar 15s, that's all very important. this is all symptom of a disease that has to do with a total decay in our political love for each other. >> so susan, unfortunately, tuesday, wednesday, this show, all of the shows will move on. his point, brilliant point. what do we do? instead of saying, oh, please, mr. trump, please paul ryan, as parents, as voters, as journalists, what do we do? i'm going to give you an answer from a political operative cold hard fact. what we need to do right now is we need to have gun control

groups not just speak to democrats. we have to have republicans speaking to republicans on this issue. we have to tell republican legislatures in swing districts, you will not be hit by the nra, you will get supported by like minded people. we need to support people who do want to do the right things, but are too afraid of the nra. the nra needs to be knocked down a few pegs and that as a political decision can be made and we can spend and do things to do that. right now, that's one of the main things that are blocking. not to go against your point, yes, as a society we're facing many issues, but right now it's brass tax. on a political front, yes, we need to do more mental health. we also need more do more to take down the nra and its political influence and back the republicans who are willing and want to make change and not have to face difficult primaries. that's the legislative problem that we face. >> montel, off of that, i have a

proposition for you given your history, given your past. it is this. i don't know whether you went to marine corps in san diego or per r the island. take the weapon. take the high ground: high ground is easiest to defend. the weapons we have to go against the nra are multiple. we have the vote. unfortunately too many americans don't use. we also have three really great americans, three former presidents, bill clinton, george w. bush, and barack obama. if you and people like you would get behind forming an organization called not the national rifle association. the national safe gun association. and ask americans in order to join, donate $5 or $10 or whatever. raise $100 million. and go primary all of these republicans who are pro-gun.

>> i'm in. i'm in and i'll tell you why. i got this. i can't see another one of these, man. something needs to be done. a young man, seeing all these school shootings just keeps bringing me back. you need to do something. we need to start doing it today. i'm in. it's easy. you don't have to ask me twice. let's do it. >> okay. >> joe, are you in. >> montel williams. >> yes, and i tell you what, the thing is i think montel, your voice is powerful because you're a gun owner. you believe in the second amendment. like me, you believe that americans do have the right to keep and bear arms, but you can also read headlines and read the constitution and read the supreme court decisions that show that this is not some fundamental right for us to be crazy when it comes to this issue, but anyway, montel, thank

you so much. >> thank you. >> we great lly appreciate it a always. please read the column. it's going to be online this morning at nbcnews.com's opinion page. think. now just moments ago, former republican presidential candidate massachusetts governor mitt romney announced that he would be running for utah's united state's senate seat. that is going to be interesting. he also released this video highlighting some of his past leadership experience, adding, quote, utah is a better model for washington than washington is for utah. the 70-year-old former governor is viewed as early favorite to win the seat that's been vacated by retiring republican senator oren hatch. expected to give first live speech at utah county lincoln day dinner this evening. how interesting.

donald trump tried to keep warn hatch in the race because he fears mitt romney. still ahead, our next guest has an idea about who else should run for congress. we'll get to that when morning joe returns. it's what this country is made of. but right now, our bond is fraying. how do we get back to "us"? the y fills the gaps. and bridges our divides. donate to your local y today. because where there's a y, there's an us. and i heard that my cousin's so, wife's sister's husband

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with us now is a veteran of the united states marine corps who served in iraq. his new mission as the co-founder and the ceo of the organization with honor is to

get more veterans elected to congress, regardless of their political affiliation. now, since its public launch in november, with honor has endorsed nine service men and women who were running for the united states house of representatives in 2018. five republicans and four democrats. welcome back. annan will have our first question. >> you're advocating for veterans to run for office and want to support them. i wonder what you think the veteran experience is. maybe you'll reflect on a story in your own life. what have veterans tended to see and done that makes them qualified to serve in public office? >> thanks for having me back on. we launched with honor.org last veterans day and "morning joe" helped us launch it. our record high polarization and dysfunction in congress, and it's no surprise to most americans, but what is more surprise to many is our veteran

representation in congress has gone to historic lows. and what we think veterans bring to the table post-9/11 veterans, that's what we focus on supporting, there are over 150 running across the united states or actually across the organization. the veterans know what it means to serve and know what it means to serve in difficult places and they focus on putting the veterans first. we're actually announcing our first nine. there will be more to come on the website withhonor.org. we're focused on principles and character. they say we will be part of the solution which is building an across partisan coalition. what's different now is the soaring costs to run for office is incredibly absurd. we're helping to lower those barriers to entry by raising critical resources for those veterans so they can win. >> as you're raising those resources, how are you deciding?

it's not just if you're a veteran. what else are you looking for when you're selecting the candidates? >> our selection process actually starts with character. we take a different approach. we don't look at specific policy. we look at the character of the individual. the veterans have to sign a pledge. which says some very specific things. it starts with values, integrity, civility and courage. including the courage to work across the aisle and do things like co-sponsor a piece of legislation. be part of a cross-partisan coalition. return money if it taints your integrity. things that people can be really held account to. we have over 150 running across the u.s. our first nine endorsements, many of them focus in texas because texas has early primaries. we'll be rolling out endorsements throughout the season. what i can say is this is a real, this is a glimmer of hope in an otherwise pretty

distressing time. you have a lot of americans stepping up to serve again. >> integrity and courage. those are characteristics of the vast majority of veterans, the people and veterans that i know. not characteristics a lot of politicians have. do a lot of vets you find like want to join this cesspool/sewe cesspool/sewer/food fight that our political system has become? >> i tell you, it's surprising we have over 150 putting their names in to run for this. because it's a miserable experience. running for office is a miserable experience. it didn't always used to be like this. most of these candidates, they're dialing for dollars because of the ridiculous costs in these elections. why do they do it? it comes down to one simple word and that's service. that's actually putting your country first. there's a great line in the marines which was, you know, if

you hear gunfire, do you run toward it or do you step back? if you run toward it, then this might be the type of service for you. i think there's a certain mentality that's actually happening there with these veterans who have the courage to run for office. to put their name out. to get completely decimated right now because that's happening in our politics. they're going to rip them apart. why are they going to do this? our congress is at, you know, record dysfunction. >> i want to ask you a favor on behalf of america. are you willing to say you will not support as part of this organization veterans running for office who support machine guns and nra candidates? >> we actually take a completely different approach. we don't look at policy. we start with character. and we start with will you actually have the courage to talk to somebody and start to try and solve some problems across this deeply divided country. >> think about it. >> yes. >> thank you. >> all right. for more on the organization, visit withhonor.org.

thank you so much for coming back. we hope to see you again as the campaign moves on. we're going to be back with some final thoughts. ancestrydna is only $69. and now, with more than 150 ethnic regions to connect to... ...it's the perfect time to find out where your greatness comes from. save 30% at ancestrydna.com.

now it's time for some final thoughts for the week. mike barnacle. >> i would urge people to think about the soul of america. think about the inability to get a vote on the dreamers this week. think about the president of the united states not mentioning "gun" this week. think about the soul of america and ask yourself is this who we are, is this who we want to be. >> maybe take a deep breath and go out and see "black panther" which is apparently an extraordinary movie and is going to rack up a lot of dough at the box office this weekend we hope. >> for me, it's compassion. will donald trump be able to show any if he visits the families after this terrible shooting? and will we be able to do more than just say we have it? >> if we have any chance of coming back together as a country, the first order of business is to agree on loving

and protecting our children. >> and as we look at washington, d.c. and see if the center holds, if our institutions hold. we look first at the intel community. the president declared war on the intel community. the men and women of that community this week they spoke truth to power. donald trump has declared war on the media. the media keeps pushing back. they're doing more great work than ever before. republicans, well, they've declared war on the rule of law. and an independent investigation by robert mueller. what happened this week? yet another trump surrogate, somebody high up in the campaign, is now cooperating with that investigation. finally, yes, republicans have ignored what 90% of americans want. but the majority is on our side. the supreme court is on our side. the constitution is on our side. that there can be